Breakfast at Tiffany's
by Cucumber
Summary: Kyouya's father arranged for him to get engaged. Is there any reason for him to believe that this match is a good one?


**This takes place a****bout a year after the anime ends in an alternate universe where the last few episodes didn't happen. **

* * *

There were a lot of girls patronizing the host club that day, but almost all of them had requested Tamaki. Kyouya and Haruhi were relegated to a couch in the corner of the room. As usual, Kyouya was tapping away on his laptop. However, what was not usual was that Haruhi was sulking.

"Are you all right, Haruhi?" Kyouya asked without looking up.

"Sure. It's silly for me to be thinking about this now," Haruhi said.

Despite her dismissive words, Haruhi sounded upset. Kyouya closed his laptop. "You're better off talking about it rather than sitting and sulking. . . . It might scare off the clients."

Haruhi stared at Kyouya for a moment, then said, "Your acceptance to Waseda University got me thinking. I hope to go there too, eventually to law school. I wanted to do public law, to help people, but now I've been thinking that the salary won't be very good. I won't be able to repay my father for everything that he's done for me over the years."

Kyouya winced inwardly. This was story the of his life, always playing the obedient son instead of doing whatever the hell he wanted. But Haruhi wasn't the son of a _zaibatsu_ owner; she didn't have to force herself into an unhappy life. He would find a way to help her with her dream and to repay her father. If only he could marry her, it would be so easy.

* * *

Kyouya was alone in the Music Room when the fateful call came in. His father and Matsudaira Kaito had set up a match between himself and Matsudaira Shizuka-_hime_. They were appointed to meet that evening in the Matsudaira home. A car would be sent for Kyouya.

Princess Shizuka had never been to the host club and she was a year younger than Kyouya so he didn't know her. Who knew what she'd be like. Kyouya walked around in a daze the rest of the day but covered it well. The only person who sensed that something was wrong was Haruhi—of course. Though she didn't say anything, she merely offered to pour Kyouya a cup of tea, which was something she normally didn't do. As Kyouya sipped his piping hot tea he felt terrible pangs of regret.

* * *

Riding in the limousine to the Matsudairas' home felt like he was being taken to the guillotine, though he stayed polite to the chauffeur, the maid who ushered him into the house, and to Matsudaira Ai, the princess's mother who sat talking to him for a few minutes. Matsudaira-_san_ was nowhere to be seen. Soon a butler announced that the princess was coming in.

Kyouya rose to meet Princess Shizuka and to thank Matsudaira Ai for her hospitality. She left the room, giving Kyouya and Princess Shizuka a bit of privacy. The princess was actually a beautiful girl, Kyouya was thankful to see, since she could have easily been inbred and ugly instead.

They sat, and Kyouya's host club instincts kicked in. He offered to pour the princess tea but she insisted on pouring it herself. They drank their tea in silence, eyeing each other warily, not having any idea what was going on in the other's head, not knowing how each felt about this match. Kyouya was certainly not going to admit that he wasn't pleased by it.

To his shock, when Princess Shizuka finished her tea and she went to pour herself another cup her hands were trembling so much that she spilled tea on the table. Kyouya took the teapot from her and poured for her. When he handed her the cup, there were tears in her eyes.

Kyouya said, "My presence seems to be upsetting the princess."

Princess Shizuka blinked a few times and said in a low, shaky voice, "I'll marry you, if you'll have me. Just promise that you'll always pour my tea when I need you to, and that when you take a mistress, you won't throw her in my face. That's all I ask." Then she fished a lace handkerchief out of her pocket and cried into it as quietly as she could.

Kyouya was mortified. Princess Shizuka didn't seem to be any more interested in marrying him that he was her but she was going to do her duty as was he. And it didn't seem like she had very high hopes for the marriage. She didn't say "if" he took a mistress, but "when." But it didn't have to be that way. Their fathers could arrange the marriage as a business deal, but they could turn it into a love match if they tried.

Or so Kyouya hoped. Princess Shizuka was an unknown quantity. As was her duty, she would surely prove to be an adequate wife and mother, but to be a love match she would have to also be a friend. Would she have anything of interest to say or was she simply a pampered, airheaded princess? Time would tell.

He imagined that in Princess Shizuka's mind he was just like all the other _zaibatsu_-owners' sons—dull and unimaginitive. He would need to prove that she was wrong. Perhaps he would invite her to the host club at some point.

To her point, Kyouya replied in his best host club manner, "My only mistress will be my office."

"Okay," Princess Shizuka said in an unconvinced tone. Then she scrubbed away her tears, pocketed her handkerchief, and bowed. "_Sumimasen_, Otori-_san_. That display was unacceptable," she said. "You can rest assured that I will not behave that way again."

She had perfectly composed herself. Now that she and Kyouya both had their public masks on, further conversation would be stilted and an exercise in who could out-polite who. Kyouya took Princess Shizuka's hand the way he'd seen Tamaki take girls' hands a million times at the host club, and he looked her right in the eye. "I look forward to getting to know you, though for now it would be best if I went," he said.

Princess Shizuka looked away but didn't pull her hand back. " 'Summer grasses/ all that remain/ of soldiers' dreams,' " she quoted.

Kyouya recognized it as one of Basho's haikus. It was incredibly sad and almost made _him_ want to cry. Why was he agreeing to this? Why couldn't he have Haruhi? Why couldn't Princess Shizuka have whomever _she_ wanted?

Of course Kyouya knew the answers to these questions. He knew he couldn't have Haruhi because she was a commoner. He also knew that if he made a play for her, Tamaki would never forgive him.

Another of Basho's poems came into Kyouya's head. " 'Three months after we saw cherry blossoms together/ I came to see the glorious/ twin trunks of the pine,' " he quoted.

"I always liked that one," Princess Shizuka said quietly.

Well, Kyouya thought, that's one thing we've got.


End file.
